A special thank you to those of you who have clicked on the adverts, purchased goods via the Youth Ministry Bookshelf, or clicked on links from my Threadless page and then ordered t-shirts. You have helped to support this hack of a blogger limp through another year – keep up the good work ;o)

Over the last year my use of Twitter has developed from simply geek-chic & vanity, to it being a genuinely useful tool for my work/ministry & interests. I’ve connected with a huge number of people around the country (and some further afield) who have shared resources, experiences & conversations which have been of great value. As my Twitter use has developed, I’ve had to find appropriate tools to keep up with everything.

For a long time I used Twhirl on my desktop for multiple accounts, and it served me well, but was lacking in some areas. So I moved to Tweetdeck and have been very happy with it as a desktop client. Unfortunately it is let down by some hugely frustrating issues with its sister app for the iPhone.

The biggest issue is its instability: it crashes up to four times a day with very little pattern or consistency. The only consistent crash is when I try to ‘unfavourite’ a tweet – when it dies every time.

But there are areas of functionality which drive me crazy and make it almost unusable. When returning to the app (either via the Home screen or the Multitask bar) it re-starts the app rather than returning to its previous state:

all previously unread tweets are marked as read

the interface scrolls to top of tweets and so losing your place in the timeline

if you open a tweet and follow a link then open it in Safari, returning to the app loses your place (as above)

if you scroll down the tweet list, slide across to a different column, then back, and it’s scrolled back to the top

When introducing the multitasking functions of IOS4, the Apple website says ‘Apps can remember where you left off. So when you return to the app, you can jump right back into […] whatever you were doing.‘ This seems to have completely passed by the developers of Tweetdeck.

Also, if you tap on a tweet, then the user’s profile, then the ‘recent tweets’ tab, you can’t interact with those tweets in the way you can with the main timeline (add favourites, etc)

There are a couple of areas of functionality which seriously lacking:

there is no landscape mode when viewing tweets or webpages (pretty fundamental error)

there is no option to schedule tweets (unlike the desktop interface)

Other than that, it’s a nice product ;o) but I’m afraid I’m no longer using the app – instead I’m trying Hootsuite for iPhone.

Adobe Kuler – application for generating color themes that can inspire any project. No matter what you’re creating, with Kuler you can experiment quickly with color variations and browse thousands of themes from the Kuler community.

This Christmas, parents and grandparents will attend their childrens’ schools to watch their miniature shepherds, angels and inn keepers perform the Nativity story. This traditional retelling remains a huge part of Christmas in the UK and, for many, will be the only time they hear the Christmas message.

But many others – particularly those in their teens, 20s and 30s who are yet to have children – won’t have this opportunity. This is the internet generation, and although they are unlikely to cross the threshold of a school, they do spend a considerable amount of their time online.

The Natwivity (the Twitter Nativity) takes advantage of social media’s unparalleled capacity to engage people as they go about their everyday life to re-tell the Christmas story in a fresh, personal way. Available on Twitter and Facebook, people will be able to pick up the ‘tweets’ online in their homes, in the high street using their phones and at work.

The Natwivity will give this famous story an immediate, real-life feel, transforming them from people 2,000 years ago to friends of the user, who are going through the drama now. Followers will be able to read Mary’s angst as she tries to come to terms with the birth of her child, and hear from the stunned shepherds after their encounter with an angel.

Each 140-character entry will be a thought or comment from Mary, Joseph, collective wisemen and shepherds, with further entries from Herod, an Inn Keeper (and his wife) and friends of Mary and Joseph.

The project aims to…

Reinforce the story of Christmas

Allow the 21st century audience to engage with the story in a new way

Create a space for Christians during a cluttered time of the year to remember the story

Create a way for Christians to engage their friends with the story in a thought-provoking, yet fun way

Reel Life Wisdom – About Reel Life | Reel Life Wisdom – for inspiration-seeking movie quote lovers. It features the popular Movie Quote Directory, a collection of over 2,300 hand-picked quotes from films across the ages. Site users can search for great quotes by movie title, actor, and/or year.

These are the links I’ve bookmarked recently on Delicious [October 26th to November 4th]:

Milton Keynes Safeguarding Childrens Board – Milton Keynes Safeguarding Children Board (MKSCB) is a statutory multi-agency group of senior managers which has been set up as part of the Every Child Matters reforms, and requires all organisations that work with children to co-operate to keep children safe from harm.

The MKSCB agrees how local services and professionals should work together to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.

At the heart of establishing the MKSCB is the desire to provide useful information and a user-friendly tool that will aid professionals, volunteers, children, young people, and their families to ensure safeguarding is everyone's business.

everystockphoto – searching free photos – a search engine for free photos. These come from many sources and are license-specific. You can view a photo's license by clicking on the license icon, below and left of photos. Membership is free, without advertising, and allows you to rate, tag, collect and comment on photos.

These are the links I’ve bookmarked recently on Delicious [September 23rd to October 11th]:

How to Break Out of a Victim Mentality: 7 Powerful Tips – One big problem a lot of people have is that they slip into thinking of themselves as victims that have little or no control over their lives. In this headspace you feel sorry for yourself, the world seems to be against you and you get stuck. Little to no action is taken and you get lost in a funk of sadness and self-pity.

So how can you move out of that mindset?

Thinkuknow – home – Information on the sites you like to visit, mobiles and new technology. Find out what’s good, what’s not and what you can do about it. All the information here is brought to you by the team at the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre.